24-Hour Tex-Mex Salad

Based on Tex-Mex ingredients, this layered salad can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance. For a fun presentation, assemble individual servings in clear jelly jars, dressing and all, then refrigerate.

Garlicky Fish Tacos

To quick pickle the onions, combine a sliced red onion with a generous pour of cider vinegar, a spoonful of brown sugar, toasted cumin seeds and a bit of salt. Let sit at room temperature for an hour before serving.

Pork and Veggie Quesadillas

Some of our favorite pizza toppings—onions, mushrooms, spinach— have found their way into a quesadilla, and we love it. If you don’t want to use pork, 8 ounces of any thinly sliced leftover meat will work.

Horchata

Traditionally, this sweet drink is made by soaking rice (and sometimes blanched almonds, too) overnight in water, then pureeing and straining the mixture. We kept the seductively sweet, authentic taste, but skipped the drawn-out process. Our shortcut version uses purchased rice milk, and we could barely tell it apart from the real deal in side-by-side tests.

Fall Vegetable Fajitas

Thinly slicing tougher cuts of meat, such as beef chuck eye steak, flank steak and skirt steak, ensures tenderness. Tip: Pop the steak in the freezer for about 20 minutes before slicing—it should be firm but not frozen. Hold a chef's knife at a 45-degree angle to the meat and thinly cut across the grain.

Comments (2)

Made these Carnitas over the weekend and they are wonderful. Doubled the recipe to share with my daughter's family. The crisping up part is what makes them so awesome. I was eating it out of the frying pan.

Also made this dip; again, wonderful. I even used it on top of hamburgers for dinner the next night. Just a spoonful cold from the fridge on top of the hot burger and you have a green chile cheeseburger.